Author Archives: raulclement

About raulclement

Raul Clement lives in Urbana, IL. His poetry, fiction, and nonfiction have been published in various journals. He is an editor at Mayday and New American Press. He is at work on a novel, Joshua City -- a post-apocalyptic, Brechtian, sci-fi monstrosity replete with lepers, revolutionaries, and Siamese triplets who can see the future -- with coauthor Okla Elliott.

In Defense of Ambiguity

Posted on October 13, 2011

In his review of Wittgenstein’s Mistress, a seminal experimentalist novel by David Markson, David Foster Wallace describes Markson’s narrative technique as “deep nonsense.” That novel tells the story of a woman who lives alone in a house on a beach, … Continue reading →

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Chasing the Hare

Posted on September 25, 2011

by Raul Clement [Author's note: This story originally appeared in the Spring 2011 issue of Blue Mesa Review. You can purchase the issue here.] The turnpike’s crowded come Thanksgiving, so at first Dylan doesn’t notice her, the new girl at … Continue reading →

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Small Press Review Series: On Style, or the Natural Lack Thereof As its Own Kind of Style, in Danila Botha’s Got No Secrets

Posted on August 31, 2011

Got No Secrets Danila Botha Tightrope Books (2010), 141 pages, $18.95 Some writers are comfortable in a style the way that certain people are comfortable in their clothes. This is not to say that the chosen style is superior; rather, … Continue reading →

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Small Press Review Series: Adam Robison and Other Poems (A Call to Arms or At Least to the Continued Search for the Munitions Locker* of Meaning Where Arms Might Be Kept)

Posted on May 5, 2011

Adam Robison and Other Poems Adam Robinson Narrow House (2010), 77 pages, $12 As an editor at a small press/journal, I wage daily confrontation against the sheer tonnage of quality work out there. After awhile, you don’t always ask yourself … Continue reading →

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Small Press Review Series: One Last Good Time and the Literary Platypus

Posted on March 1, 2011

One Last Good Time Michael Kardos Press 53 (2010), 185 pages, $14.95 The trouble with interconnected story collections is that they are interconnected. I know, I know: the first rule of tautology club is the first rule of tautology club. … Continue reading →

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Frozen on a Street Corner While the Unbludgeoned World Moves Forward

Posted on December 3, 2010

Michel Franco’s Daniel y Ana In the last decade or so, Mexican film has been among the most consistently interesting in the world.  It has a certain moral and social grittiness not seen in most American movies, but a tightly-edited watchability … Continue reading →

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French Connection

Posted on November 2, 2010

Two recent novels by French-speaking authors blend close psychological analysis with free-flowing lyricism to tell deceptively simple love stories. One of those books, In the Train, by Christian Oster, was released by Object Press this year. Object Press, out of Toronto, … Continue reading →

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Drinking with British Architects

Posted on October 1, 2010

A Not-Very-Objective Review by Raul Clement Recently, poet Jeff Laughlin sent me a copy of his first collection, Drinking with British Architects. This is a chapbook of less than 50 pages that went through a press run of 100 copies … Continue reading →

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Tiger Moth

Posted on August 31, 2010

[This story was originally published in The Chaffey Review in May of 2009.  It is reprinted here with minimal editorial changes.] Tiger Moth by Raul Clement For a long time after the boy’s death, the father sat in the darkened … Continue reading →

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On Turning Thirty, by Raul Clement

Posted on August 1, 2010

“It’s impossible for a man to waste any time before thirty-five…” – James Michener, The Drifters “What you don’t do before thirty, you’ll never do.” – John Updike, from…? I. The Pixar film Up presents itself as for children. It … Continue reading →

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